I came across Carl's 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter when I googled
sourdough starter. I was looking for a starter recipe that did'nt contain
rye. (Rye is expensive and hard to find; and I'm cheap and lazy.)

Friends of Carl will send the starter, without cost, to anyone who
requests it. People on "rec.food.sourdough" talk favorablely about the
starter. Do a "find" in NG and pull up some old posts. Here's one of them:
"Well, Carl has passed on to that great bakery in the sky, but his starter
is
still available, thanks to Carl's friends.
http://home.att.net/~carlsfriends/
Carl's is a great starter, I use it weekly"

So I sent a 41 cent self-address envelope to Jefferson MD yesterday and I'll
give it a try. Just one question: How will I know that Carl's 1847 Oregon
Trail Sourdough Starter is really 1847 and not 1849 or maybe even 1852
Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter. Don't you just hate it when people do
things like that.